Health reform, employer benefits focus of Chamber talk

ROCKFORD — Employers have big decisions to make about providing health care benefits for their employees come 2014, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, and Ted Nodzenski urged them Thursday to be smart about employee coverage.

ROCKFORD — Employers have big decisions to make about providing health care benefits for their employees come 2014, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, and Ted Nodzenski urged them Thursday to be smart about employee coverage.

“If you drop your health plan, you’re sending a bad signal to your workforce and to the broader community,” said Nodzenski, vice president of strategic and business development for the Illinois Hospital Association. “It shows you’re a company that’s suffering, and that you might be in decline. That’s a negative indicator.

“Good benefits make for a better workforce.”

Nodzenski’s presentation to a crowd of about 250 people at the Rockford Chamber of Commerce’s Healthcare Industry Update luncheon was especially timely, given the outcome of the presidential election. Health care reform was approved in 2010 and with President Barack Obama’s re-election, the reform mandates will be implemented as planned unless lawmakers are successful in adjusting the law.

The employer mandate requires employers of a certain size to offer health care benefits to their employees or pay fines if no benefits are offered or if the benefits that are offered aren’t affordable enough.

In some cases, employers have argued that it might be more affordable and predictable to pay the fines rather than risk a year with several expensive insurance claims that cut away at profits.

Nodzenski offered several reasons for maintaining employer benefits, including the fact that eliminating benefits would hurt employee morale and be a “big emotional takeaway for employees.”

Nodzenski compared reforming the health care system to trying to fix a jet engine mid-flight. Health care services can’t be shut down for six months to be retooled all at once.

He said mergers and consolidations are a major trend in the industry, and that was reflected in the local landscape. OSF HealthCare tried to acquire Rockford Health System but called off talks this year after battling a challenge to the deal by the Federal Trade Commission.